A challenge to Northern Cape liquor-trading provisions is asking the Constitutional Court to clarify the state’s duties to protect people from alcohol-related harm.
The DG Murray Trust (DGMT), the applicant, set out its requested relief in a statement dated 9 November. It listed the hearing in case CCT 127/26 for Tuesday, 10 November, at 10:00. The statement establishes the scheduled hearing, not its outcome.
DGMT says the Northern Cape High Court declared the province’s 2024 Gambling and Liquor Act unconstitutional on 17 April after finding inadequate public participation. Its account says the declarations require Constitutional Court confirmation before taking effect.
The trust seeks invalidity limited to the challenged provisions and a 24-month period for the provincial legislature to correct them. It proposes interim midnight closing for on-premises alcohol sales and no Sunday off-premises sales.
Those restrictions are requested remedies, not newly confirmed trading rules. DGMT also seeks to overturn the High Court’s rejection of its separate Bill of Rights argument concerning the state’s responsibility to prevent alcohol-related harm.
This report describes the applicant’s case and does not establish that the Constitutional Court has granted the relief or issued judgment.
Archive photograph of the Constitutional Court courtroom in Johannesburg, taken on 12 April 2007; not today’s hearing. Incidental visitors are not identified as parties to this case. Photo: arboresce / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ConstitutionalCourtofSouthAfrica-courtroom-20070412.jpg . Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ . Original unchanged; display may crop and resize. Adapted display images are shared under CC BY-SA 2.0.
